Short pitch rail corrugations were observed on a recently opened Chinese high-speed line. On the basis of field measurements and observations of corrugations occurred on the high-speed line, a 3D transient rolling contact model is developed using the explicit finite element (FE) method to investigate high-speed vehicle-track interactions in the presence of rail corrugations. The rotational and translational movements of the wheel are introduced as initial conditions in the model. The frictional rolling contact between the wheel and the corrugated rail is solved by a penalty method based surface-to-surface contact algorithm with Coulomb’s law of friction. The contact filter effect is considered automatically by the finite size of the contact patch. Through specifying a time-dependent driving torque applied to the wheel axle, the tangential vehicle-track interaction on the corrugated rail is analyzed in the time domain together with the normal one at different traction levels and at rolling speeds of up to 500 km/h. This analysis focuses on detailed contact solutions, such as distributions of the pressure, surface shear stress, Von Mises (V-M) stress, and frictional work. The corrugation dimensions, traction level, and rolling speed are varied to investigate their influences, building a solid basis for further studying the material damage mechanisms. A theory is proposed based on the simulations to explain the observed phenomenon that the corrugation gradually stabilizes. The traditional multi-body approach is found to overestimate the dynamic wheel-rail interaction on a corrugated rail.
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